I got Lola in 2003 from Kitten Rescue in Los Angeles when she was just 6 months old. At the time I was living with my cat Rahja in a poorly furnished studio apartment in Hollywood.

I was originally going to foster her; even back then I was afraid of too much commitment. She was dropped off by two lovely rescue ladies…she came out of her carrier looking like an angry, half-drowned rat. I didn’t know her story, but I could tell she had been through it. She had an unhealthy fear of brooms and major food issues, which took her a long time to get over. I remember at that time I ate spaghetti almost every night because that was all I could afford. She would shove her face in my plate, despite having a full food bowl of her own cat food. For a long time I made her a side plate of spaghetti and we would eat our dinner together.

When I got her, I was told she had an eye infection. I religiously put eye drops in her eye for months and it didn’t get better. When I took her to the vet, he told me she just had a folded tear duct and her “eye goop” was just collected tears on her fur…something she could live with and be ok.

On our first night together, she curled up in the crook of my arm and placed two paws on either side of my face. She purred me to sleep. We needed each other. Many nights she would lay across my pillow, wrap her paws around my skull and purr…with only the occasional claw. Her soft, fluffy fur would tickle my face. We developed a bond very quickly…if my shoes were in the floor, she was the first one to lay on them.

Over the years, Lola grew into an incredibly fat cat. Over more years she shrunk to the size of a skeleton. She was diagnosed with Hyperthyroid and got special week-long treatment at RadioCat in 2014. She returned to her normal state and fattened back up. All was well until she began to lose her eye sight, eventually went completely blind, and began her descent into kidney failure and poor health. We believe it was brought on by her rabies vaccination she received as a requirement to move to Texas.

In her time, Lola was an expert bug chaser. In the time it would take to argue who would get off the couch and kill the fly, Lola would already have taken it down and made a meal out of it. She would “catch” toys mid-air and take them down. She loved to be taken outside and supervised so she could roll around on the ground and sniff new scents. One of her favorite places to be was on my desk…with a paw draped over my keyboard. If I hit the Backspace button too many times, she’d let me know. She was the undisputed Alpha cat in our home…even when she grew old and tired. If a cat tried to mess with her, not only would she mess them up, but she would proactively mess with them for a week just to show them who was boss. She was also the most photogenic cat I’ve ever had. No light was bad light for my beautiful girl.

The Lola was hard headed and obstinate from day one, and she continued to be so until the end. I’m so grateful, because I always loved that about her. If she didn’t want to be petted anymore, she’d bite ya. If she wanted the Thanksgiving turkey raw…she was going to have it. She was never meek. If she wanted a door open, she’d claw it down. She made sure you knew if she wanted something. She hated children. She never got over her hate of cars or enclosures of any kind. She managed to pee or poop on me at 90% of every vet visit. She scaled every wall we put in front of her. She growled and complained when we tried to groom her. She even managed to get up and almost bite the vet when she received her initial sedation shot in the end. I was so proud of her. I scooped her up into my arms and told her so. She passed with me cradling her, surrounded by the smells and sounds of home.

I have over 1000 photos and videos of Lola. I do not have a picture of her as a kitten. I was too poor to buy a camera or film at that time in our lives. She led a good life until these last few months. I am choosing to leave out the photos of her when she was sick. I have enough of those in my mind. I choose to remember her as she will be in Rainbow Bridge…fully well and happy and fluffy.

Lola was my family for many years, and she simply cannot ever be replaced. She was preceded in death by her feline and canine siblings Rahja, Milo, Sam, and Duffy. Her surviving siblings are Mickey and Henrietta. My sweet girl saw me through two marriages, one divorce, many life changes, and more moves than I can count. To say that I feel tremendous loss is not enough. We all have our favorites. She was mine.

Born: 7/6/03
Died: 9/4/18